How Many Forklifts Do You Need?

Quick Answer: How Many Forklifts Do You Need?

Quick answer: size your fleet from utilization and shift coverage, not from your busiest week. Count the hours of forklift work your operation actually creates per shift, divide by what one truck can realistically cover, add a small spare ratio, then flex the peaks with rentals instead of owning them.

• Utilization is the number that matters. A truck in motion 40 to 60 percent of a shift is usually right. Much higher and you have no slack; much lower and you are paying to park it.
• Size for the average, flex the peak. Owning enough trucks to cover one busy week means most of the fleet sits idle the other fifty-one.
• Every truck needs an operator. A spare unit does nothing without a trained, certified driver, which is a real limit on how many you can run at once.
• Oversized and undersized both cost money. One shows up as idle capital and maintenance, the other as overtime and downtime.
• Rentals are a sizing tool, not just a backup. Short-term hire covers spikes without adding a unit you feed all year.

Not sure your fleet is the right size?

How do you work out how many forklifts you need?

Start with the work, not the trucks. Add up the forklift hours your operation actually creates in a shift, based on how many loads move and how long each move takes, then divide by the hours one truck can realistically cover after breaks, charging, and maintenance. That gives you a base number. Add a spare ratio on top, and you have a defensible fleet size.

Here is the method in plain terms. Pick a normal shift and count the moves: pallets received, put away, picked, and loaded. Multiply each move by a realistic cycle time, the full round trip from pick-up to drop-off and back, which for standard pallet work usually lands between two and four minutes. That gives you total forklift minutes for the shift.

Say a shift generates 900 pallet moves at three minutes each. That is 2,700 minutes, or 45 forklift hours of work. One truck on an eight-hour shift does not give you eight usable hours; call it six after breaks, refueling or charging, inspections, and the gaps between tasks. Divide 45 by 6 and you need roughly eight trucks running to clear the shift without falling behind.

• Loads per shift. Receiving, put-away, replenishment, picking, and loading, counted separately.
• Cycle time. The full round trip per move, not just the lift. Long travel or deep racking pushes this up.
• Usable hours per truck. Six of eight is a safe planning figure once you subtract breaks, charging, and inspections.

What is a good forklift utilization rate?

For most operations, a healthy forklift utilization rate sits between 40 and 60 percent of available shift time in actual motion. Below that, you are paying to own and store trucks that rarely move. Above roughly 70 percent, you have no slack, so any breakdown, rush order, or absent operator turns straight into missed work.

Utilization is simply the share of a truck’s available time that it spends doing productive work. You can pull it from telematics if your trucks report it, or estimate it from your move count and cycle times using the method above. Either way, the goal is not maximum utilization. A fleet run flat out looks efficient on a spreadsheet and falls over the first bad morning.

Watch for the split, too. An average can hide a fleet where two trucks are pinned at 90 percent and three sit at 20. That is a deployment problem more than a sizing one, and it is the kind of pattern connected fleet management tools surface quickly, so you can move work before you buy iron.

How do shift patterns and a spare ratio change the number?

Coverage drives the count as much as workload does. A single-shift operation and a three-shift operation with the same daily volume need different fleets, because trucks on a 24-hour cycle get less maintenance breathing room and wear faster. On top of your working number, plan a spare ratio so a truck down for service does not stop a line.

A common, practical spare ratio is one standby unit for every five to eight trucks in regular service, adjusted for how old your fleet is and how close your service support sits. Older trucks break more often, so they need more slack. If you run lean and your nearest branch can be on site the same day, you can carry fewer spares and lean on fast response instead.

Do not forget the operator side of the equation. A spare forklift is only useful if you have a trained person to run it. OSHA’s powered industrial truck standard requires every operator to be trained, evaluated, and certified for the specific class of truck they drive, so headcount and certification cap how many units you can actually put to work in a shift, no matter how many sit in the yard.

Why is sizing for your peak week a costly mistake?

Because you pay for the peak all year and use it for a week. If you buy enough forklifts to clear your busiest run, a holiday season, an inventory count, a product launch, most of that fleet sits idle the rest of the year, quietly costing you money in payments, maintenance, and floor space. The cheaper answer is to own for your steady state and rent the spikes.

Peak demand is real, but it is short. A beverage distributor might need twelve trucks in July and eight the rest of the year. Owning twelve means four units spend nine months depreciating in a corner. Renting those four for the peak, then handing them back, turns a fixed cost into a variable one you only pay when the work is there.

This is where short-term hire earns its place as a planning tool, not just a breakdown backup. A short-term forklift rental covers inventory counts, seasonal surges, and re-layouts without permanently enlarging the fleet, and our rental fleet can scale up and down with your calendar.

What do the wrong-sized fleets actually cost?

Both directions cost money; they just send the bill to different places. An oversized fleet shows up as idle capital, maintenance on trucks you barely use, storage, and insurance. An undersized fleet shows up as overtime, rushed last-minute rentals, missed shipments, and the downtime that lands when your one spare is already in the shop.

An oversized fleet quietly bleeds:

• Idle capital. Money tied up in trucks that could be financing something that moves.
• Maintenance and storage. Every unit needs servicing, inspection, and floor space whether it runs or not.
• Insurance and depreciation. You carry both on machines that are not earning.

An undersized fleet costs you when it counts:

• Overtime and rushed hire. You cover gaps with premium-priced hours and last-minute rentals.
• Downtime with no backup. When a truck goes down and there is no slack, the work stops. Our guide to forklift downtime costs breaks down how fast that adds up.
• Missed windows. Late trucks out the door become late deliveries and unhappy customers.

How Thompson Lift Truck helps you right-size your fleet

We would rather help you run the right number of trucks than sell you one more you do not need. When we look at a fleet, we start with your utilization, your shift pattern, and your peaks, and we work out where you are carrying too much, too little, or the wrong mix of capacity and attachments.

From there the answer usually points in one of two directions. If you are short, we can cover it with a rental or add the right unit from our new forklift lineup rather than a like-for-like replacement. If you are long, we can help you consolidate and lean on flexible hire for the spikes. Either way, connected fleet management gives you the utilization numbers to make the call on data instead of gut feel.

Our team works across Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina. Paying for forklifts you are not using, or scrambling for ones you do not have? Contact Thompson Lift Truck and we will run a utilization review with you.